Within three days, various construction projects were concentrated.
Ten plywood factories and one printing plant were completed first. Jiang Ye posted recruitment messages in the settlement's group chat, and they were filled in less than three minutes.
The hot spring resort was also rapidly completed, exceeding expectations in its luxury. The accompanying hotel was a staggering 12 stories high, built to five-star standards.
The hot spring area's luxury residences were still under construction, but pre-sales had already begun.
Jiang Ye had initially thought that no one would be able to afford houses priced at two hundred million.
However, he had underestimated the number of wealthy individuals. Within a day of pre-sales opening, eight luxury homes had already been claimed.
The first was naturally Jiang Ye's, as he was the developer.
The second was surprisingly Isabel's, purchased with full payment. It seemed her tree-planting company had been quite profitable recently.
The third was Ju Lanlan's. This girl was passionate about acquiring property, having already bought over ten small houses and two villas. Jiang Ye strongly supported her property purchases, as it prevented her from upgrading her base vehicle and kept her reliant on his supplies, thus solidifying their partnership for the long term.
The fourth was unexpectedly Xu Yan's, who also paid in full. This might have been due to her consideration of working there. Living in the company dorms wasn't a permanent solution, and having her own place was necessary.
The fifth was purchased by Shao Wan, also with full payment. This truly surprised Jiang Ye, who hadn't realized his financial capacity was so substantial. However, having the police chief as a neighbor certainly increased his sense of security.
The sixth was secured by Shizhi Zhizi, a wealthy young lady who could easily afford a house.
The remaining two units were purchased by individuals Jiang Ye didn't recognize. They were employees sent by Termite Real Estate, high-ranking white-collar workers from an alien planet, who surprisingly also possessed considerable financial strength.
The pace of property sales was ten times faster than Jiang Ye had anticipated. If this momentum continued, the luxury hot spring district would be sold out in no time.
The mining of shale mountain proceeded smoothly. In addition to the routine extraction of shale, a small iron ore deposit had recently been discovered, causing a surge in daily profits. Jiang Ye's account balance rapidly climbed to one billion within a few days!
With some spare cash, he felt confident enough to continue expanding his territory.
On a Saturday morning, as soon as Jiang Ye woke up, he issued an order to Che Zhen via the base panel.
"Today, you will lead the team out for a thorough scan. Don't miss any areas. Be sure to return before dark, and record the coordinates of your turning point and send them to me. This will help us establish military bases at those return points."
Che Zhen replied, "Understood! I guarantee the mission will be completed!"
Jiang Ye added a reminder, "Enable data sharing for me. I want to watch your operations."
Half an hour later, Che Zhen's spider data was integrated into Jiang Ye's base panel.
The hundred-plus spider armored vehicles in the combat sequence were all displayed on the mini-map of the panel, along with a constant stream of messy real-time data.
Once all the spiders were assembled, Che Zhen issued the departure order, and the army left the military base, advancing towards the wilderness.
Jiang Ye specifically switched to check the leaderboard:
[Jiang Ye Autonomous Region / Development Index 3390 / Rank 9770]
He silently noted down his current development index in a notebook, wanting to see how much the development index would increase after the spider unit's day of territorial expansion.
Jiang Ye crossed his legs, picked up his prepared popcorn, and leisurely watched the live broadcast on the panel.
The spiders advanced one kilometer, three kilometers, five kilometers, ten kilometers...
Gradually, some special marked points began to appear.
[Cliff]
[Hilly Area]
[Small Stream]
[Basin]
Most of the markings were unremarkable, simply indicating terrain features.
Jiang Ye had finished his popcorn, his expression growing listless. He had initially thought that watching his troops expand their territory from the screen would give him the same thrill as playing Red Alert. However, after several hours of the troops monotonously running, he had become bored.
Finally, a different marking appeared:
[Suspected Chalk]
Jiang Ye sat up straight, leaning forward, and stared intently at the troops on the screen.
Upon scanning the suspected chalk, the spiders' advance immediately halted. They turned and searched, conducting a deep scan.
A moment later, the marking changed:
[Chalk Area, Depth Unknown, Area Approximately 188 Mu, Mineable]
Jiang Ye smiled. Chalk wasn't particularly expensive; it was commonly used as fertilizer or in the production of ceramics, plastics, and rubber. However, it was still a mineral, and an area of 188 mu was quite substantial. Mining it all and selling it would yield a considerable income.
The spider unit had been deployed for only a few hours, considered a promising start. It seemed they had good luck today.
However, immediately after, Jiang Ye's smile froze on his face.
The spiders on the screen were being marked red one after another, and they continued to flash.
Clicking on one brought up a brief prompt:
[Open Fire Status]
In less than ten seconds, all the spiders descended into chaos. Each one was marked red, and every flash represented a cannon shell being fired. The spiders on the screen flickered so rapidly it was dazzling; the actual artillery fire must have been as heavy as rain!
Jiang Ye's hair stood on end. His troops were engaged in combat, but what were they fighting?
He clicked on the screen repeatedly, listening to the soldiers' voice messages. The cacophony of artillery fire immediately erupted, mixed with many shouts:
"Fall back! Left flank fall back! Get off the sand!"
"Don't panic, maintain formation! Squad Two, withdraw first! Run towards the chalk ground!"
"I've been hit! Save me! Captain, save me!"
"Requesting base support! Encountered unknown biological attack! It burrows underground!"
Jiang Ye listened for a long time, catching only fragments. The soldiers' shouts were drowned out by the even fiercer artillery fire, indicating a very intense battle.
Che Zhen was constantly issuing orders to regroup his troops, caught in a whirlwind of activity. Jiang Ye couldn't ask him what was happening at the moment.
Switching to the real-time map, Jiang Ye swiftly issued commands to several military bases.